Candlelight Wedding Joins 2 Billionaire Families

By GEORGIA DULLEA

Published: April 19, 1988

It was a power wedding. Laura S. Steinberg and Jonathan M. Tisch were married last night at the Central Synagogue in Manhattan in a candlelight ceremony joining two billionaire families that in one generation have carved a place in New York's world of high finance and society.

Mrs. Tisch is the 25-year-old daughter of Barbara Steinberg and Saul P. Steinberg, chairman and chief executive of Reliance Group Holdings Inc. Mr. Tisch, 34, is president of Loews Hotels. His parents are Joan and Preston Robert Tisch, who is president and co-chief executive officer of the Loews Corporation and former Postmaster General of the United States.

It was a Wall Street wedding, with names from the ''smart money crowd'' studding the guest list. Mr. Steinberg and Tisch family members are major stock market investors, notably the bridegroom's uncle, Laurence A. Tisch, who is chief executive of CBS. At the bridal couple's engagement party last year, a Tisch family member said, ''If they get married, it will have to be cleared by the S.E.C.''

It was a stylish wedding, white-on-white, with all the women's dresses designed by Arnold Scaasi. The bride's aunt, Lynda Steinberg Jurist, was matron of honor and the bridegroom's brother, the movie producer Steven Tisch, was best man. White on White

The bride wore an off-white taffeta dress, delicately embroidered in gold, with a seven-foot train. Her tulle veil was held in place by a diamond and pearl tiara that may have been something old, something new or something borrowed.

Dressed in off-white moire shot with gold were her 10 attendants. The men were in white tie and tails while children from both families were done-up as flower girls and ring bearers.

It was a wedding that blended tradition and contemporary mores. The bride's divorced parents were at her side during the ceremony, which was performed by Rabbi Stanley Davids, senior rabbi of the synagogue, under a chuppa fashioned of bronze palms from Mr. Steinberg's collection of antiquities.

Barbara Walters, Helen Gurley Brown and others hiked their bouffant skirts as they climbed out of limousines and ran to the synagogue steps, where a canopy shielded them from the rain. Most of the limousines could not reach the entrance because the wedding party's burgundy Rolls-Royce was blocking it. 'Queen of Nouvelle Society'

Spotlights illuminated the East 55th Street side of the synagogue, a landmark Moorish-style building. Guests said the effect inside was of sunlight on the stained glass windows. On the altar, banked with flowers and glowing candelabra, were antique pieces from the Steinberg home.

''We tried very much to respect the integrity of the synagogue by using period pieces,'' said the bride's stepmother, Gayfryd Steinberg. who was described recently in U.S. News & World Report as ''the queen of nouvelle society.''

The families declined a request by Life magazine to document what was being called the wedding of the 80's. Interest was keen, however, as news photographers scrambled in the rain to catch the bridal couple before they sped off to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, where a gala dinner was held.

Passing through the receiving line in the museum's Great Hall were more than 500 guests, including Norman Mailer and Norris Church, Lord Weidenfeld, Beverly Sills, Carolyne Roehm and Henry Kravis, Donald and Ivana Trump, Georgette Mosbacher, Alex Papamarkou, Lewis Rudin, Laura and John Pomerantz, Vernon Jordan, Nancy and Frank Richardson, Hillary and David Mahoney. 'A Young People's Party'

''It was a fairy tale wedding,'' Blaine Trump was saying to her husband, Robert.

''You can really describe this as very much a family party and a young people's party,'' Gayfryd Steinberg said, levelly, in an interview before the party.

Her presence had excited the gossip columnists. Caterers, florists and other worker were required to sign confidentiality agreements, which could have subjected them to lawsuits for leaking details.

In designer beige were the bridegroom's mother, the bride's mother and stepmother. The bride's mother, owner of an antiques shop, Barbara Steinberg Unlimited, was escorted by Justin Hornik, whom she introduced as ''a man I've been seeing for some time.''

As for her daughter and son-in-law, she said they began dating about three years ago. ''It just clicked. I hope they will always be as happy as they are today.''

The bride, a graduate of the Dalton School and the University of Pennsylvania, has an M.B.A. degree from New York University. Until recently she worked as a story analyst for Warner Bros., Inc. in New York.

The bridegroom, who graduated from the Gunnery and Tufts University, is a trustee of both institutions.

After the reception, guests drifted past the Greek and Roman antiques to the museum restaurant, decorated in French Directoire, with swags, rosettes and tassels. On the tables were centerpieces of gilded magnolia leaves and spring branches.

Between courses of poached salmon with champagne aspic, trio of veal, lamb and chicken, orzo with porcini, and spring vegetables, guests danced to Hank Lane's orchestra.

The wines, from the Steinberg cellar, were Corton Charlemagne, Chateau Latour and Roederer Cristal Champagne.